Many thanks for your insights into The Attainment Of Ultimate Bullshido, everyone. One thing it shows: we throw out for real what we practised. None of this "Well we do it THIS way in the dojo, but on the street..." crap. When fight-or-flight kicks in, all thought of adjustment goes out the window. Actually, all thought goes out the window, full stop.

When my colleagues and myself were training shank-disarms at the correctional centre where I've been working, we NEVER hand the practice-weapon back to the training partner after the drill. It goes onto the floor and the partner has to pick it up.

Why? Some of you have doubtless heard this: a number of police departments used to do knife-disarms and, when the drill was done, participants would hand the blade directly back to the partner. This got drilled, again and again. What do you imagine happened when some of those officers got threatened with blades in real life? Yep...they'd skillfully disarm the attacker--and then hand the knife right back to him. The only thing that saved a lot of them was the perps' total astonishment at having their weapon handed right back to them by the arresting officers. That moment of utter suprise gave the officers time to correct the situation. Now most enforcement agencies ensure that the practise weapon is NEVER handed back to the other partner directly after the drill.

When there's no time for thought, there's only habit.

Forget "train one way, streetfight another". That's Ultimate Bullshido. When the feces hits the fan, you'll do exactly what you've drilled, again and again. In a real encounter, you'll pointfight, if that's what you've done the most. You'll go into horse-stance and get your nads kicked out your ears. You'll bow respectfully--just out of damned habit--and end up eating a nice uppercut...or barstool.

Just a question, Kickcatcher, about those photos a couple of posts upthread. Why would the guy standing not be rushing around to land kicks on the fallen guy's head? Most of what I've seen, in terms of street action, goes that way: if somebody goes down, the boots go to his head, pronto. Thanks for the link, by the way. When some useless thing called "work" doesn't get in the way, I'll check it out.

I remember waiting in a parking lot for a wedding rehersal to end and a friend that did kung fu (I forget which flavor) wanted to touch spar. Like 20% intensity, open hands. We never touch sparred in Taekwondo, we only dressed up like the Michelin Man and tried to show how many variations of the round kick we knew, but what the hell, I was bored.

Long story short, after a few slaps I threw an axe kick and tore open the front of my jeans. Until Chuck Norris Action Jeans become the fashion norm, and if there's a loving God in heaven someday they will be, but until that day I had to admit to myself that perhaps high kicks weren't the best techniques to use in street clothes. Just one of the many good reasons to quit TKD that I learned.

Long story short, after a few slaps I threw an axe kick and tore open the front of my jeans. Until Chuck Norris Action Jeans become the fashion norm, and if there's a loving God in heaven someday they will be, but until that day I had to admit to myself that perhaps high kicks weren't the best techniques to use in street clothes. Just one of the many good reasons to quit TKD that I learned.

Or wear baggier jeans. I never wear tight jeans, they encourage betty swallocks.